Obesity remains a serious health problem and it is no secret that many people want to lose weight. Behavioral economists typically argue that “nudges” help individuals with various decisionmaking flaws to live longer, healthier, and better lives. In an article in the new issue of Regulation, Michael L. Marlow discusses how nudging by government differs from nudging by markets, and explains why market nudging is the more promising avenue for helping citizens to lose weight.

Two long wars, chronic deficits, the financial crisis, the costly drug war, the growth of executive power under Presidents Bush and Obama, and the revelations about NSA abuses, have given rise to a growing libertarian movement in our country – with a greater focus on individual liberty and less government power. David Boaz’s newly released The Libertarian Mind is a comprehensive guide to the history, philosophy, and growth of the libertarian movement, with incisive analyses of today’s most pressing issues and policies.

Copyright Unbalanced: From Incentive to Excess

The Constitution gives Congress the power to establish copyrights “to promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts.” This would require Congress to engage in a delicate balancing act, giving authors enough protection to motivate their creation of expressive works, but not so much that it hampers innovation and access to information. Copyright Unbalanced makes the case that Congress has not struck that balance well and that over the last half-century, Congress has routinely shifted the balance in only one direction — away from public access and freedom and toward greater and deeper privileges for organized special interests.

The book argues that conservatives and libertarians, who are naturally suspicious of big government, should be skeptical of an ever-expanding copyright system. And they should be skeptical of the recent trend toward criminal prosecution of even minor copyright infringements, of the growing use of civil asset forfeiture in copyright enforcement, and of attempts to regulate the Internet and electronics in the name of piracy eradication. Join us for an interesting and challenging discussion of copyright and its enforcement.